
*. H* ISLEY 






TO MY MOTHER, 

whose tender love and 
devotion for me are ever 
unchanged, I dedicate 
this book. 



Copyright, 1904, by P. H. ELEY. 



LI8RARY «f OONQRfiSS 
Two Cooles Received 

MAY 31 1904 

Coovrtg'ht Entry 

CLASS ^ XXcNa 

COPY B 



.£"3? 



CONTEXTS. 

1. An Epoch in History. 

2. Manila. 

3. A Drama in Actual Life. 

4. What the Teachers Did. 

5. A "Baile." 

6. A Sketch of Life in the 

Philippines. 

7. The Filipino at Home. 

8. A Visit to a Leper Colony. 

9. A "Hike." 



PREFACE. 

It was the good fortune of the 
author to take part in a movement 
without precedent in the history of 
the world, and the incidents con- 
current with, together w T ith those 
subsequent to that movement, have 
furnished the material for this 
book. It has been the object 
of the writer to weave into the story 
of his actual experiences an account 
of those things which are as yet 
an unexplored field in the realm of 
letters. The work is submitted to 
the reader in the hope that it will 



prove to be pregnant with interest 
to those who are in sympathy with 
great movements and to those who 
listen with delight to stories of per- 
sonal experiences in distant lands 
and among strange peoples. 

The Author. 
The Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 
April, 1904. 



CHAPTER I. 
AN EPOCH IN HISTORY. 

Few people pause to think that 
Tuesday, the twenty-third day of 
July, nineteen hundred and one, not 
only placed a mile-stone on the road 
of civilization, but also marked an 
epoch in the history of the world. 

That day placed a mile-stone on 
the road of civilization because it 
saw the culmination of one of the 
greatest movements ever attempted 
in behalf of common school educa- 
tion. It marked an epoch in the 
history of the world because, for 



the first time within the knowledge 
of man, a conquering people, instead 
of sending battalions of soldiers to 
hold the conquered in subjection, 
sent a carefully selected body of 
men and women to carry to them 
the benefits of a highly developed 
society. 

It was on this day that the United 
States Government sent from San 
Francisco four hundred and ninety- 
nine trained men and women to 
establish throughout the Philippine 
Islands a system of free public 
schools. 

The ball on the tower of the 
Ferry Building in San Francisco 
had just fallen, announcing the 
hour of noon on the one hundred 



and twentieth meridian, when the 
propellers began revolving and the 
United States Army Transport 
"Thomas" swung out into the mid- 
dle of the bay, where it dropped 
anchor for a few moments w T hile 
some belated boxes of lemons and a 
few other articles were added to the 
equipment of the steward's depart- 
ment. 

The anchor was again on its way 
to the surface when a row-boat 
driven by four oarsmen with drawn 
muscles and clenched teeth glided 
in under the bow of the ship. Its 
passenger, a belated teacher who at 
the last moment had wandered from 
the pier, was shouting for some one 
to throw him a rope, and a 



few moments later our last passen- 
ger whose silvery hair little indi- 
cated the probability of such a blun- 
der was landed in a heap on the 
deck. Our ship was now under way 
and soon passed out of the 
Golden Gate bearing on and be- 
tween her decks the largest num- 
ber of teachers as well as the largest 
cargo of pedagogical equipment that 
any vessel in the history of the 
world ever bore to a foreign land 
to instruct an alien people. Late in 
the afternoon five whales came up 
and spouted and played around us. 
We passed on and as their foun- 
tains of spray disappeared in the 
distance the sun sank down to pay 
his wonted devotion before the 
shrine of night. We were alone. 

8 



By good fortune we went by way 
of the Hawaiian Islands and touched 
at Honolulu. We entered the har- 
bor in the first faint light of the 
coming morn while the moon still 
shone with resplendent glory just 
above the nearer rim of the old 
extinct volcanic crater lying just 
behind the town. High points of 
land lay around us on three sides, 
while across the bay soft billowy 
clouds completed an enchanting cir- 
cle from the spell of which none of 
us wished ever to escape. 

Xo traveler who lands at Hono- 
lulu will feel unrequited for his time 
and his money should he visit two 
places in the vicinity of the town. 
The first is the Pali and the second, 



the Bishop Museum of Polynesian 
Ethnology. 

The first is a gigantic precipice, 
reached by a few hours ride from 
the city by horse. As one reaches 
the precipice, there spreads out be- 
fore him at a dizzying depth below 
a verdant plain, bounded in the dis- 
tance by an emerald sea. The wind 
which always blows in tropical coun- 
tries is gathered in between the long 
projecting arms of a mountain 
chain and rushes over the face of 
cliff with such force that it is said 
by travelers to be one of the strong- 
est continual winds on the globe. 

The Bishop Museum of Poly- 
nesian Ethnology contains the finest 
collection in existence of things 

10 



illustrating the life and customs of 
Polynesia. Among other things, 
the visitor is shown the personal god 
of war of that sovereign whose 
grand-child was the. last to hold 
the sceptre of the Kanakas. There 
are royal documents to prove that 
more than one thousand men have 
been beheaded before this grim- 
faced old idol. Here, too, is the 
famous robe of birds' feathers, made 
to please the fancy of this same 
grim old monarch. The feathers of 
which this strange, but really ele- 
gant, robe is made are of a reddish 
color. The birds from which they 
were plucked were found only in 
the Hawaiian Islands and each bird 
had only four feathers, two being 



ii 

L.ofC. 



under each wing. The extinction 
of the bird is attributed to the mak- 
ing of this royal robe. So many of 
them were needed that hundreds of 
hunters were employed a score or 
more of years to secure the num- 
ber required. Placing the wages of 
the hunters at a reasonable figure, 
the value of the robe is over three 
hundred thousand dollars. 

At Honolulu one sees also that 
famous sport of the South Sea 
Islanders, surf-shooting. The na- 
tive wades far out into the surf with 
a long narrow board and then sits 
astride of it upon the surface of the 
water. As the long billows come 
rolling in, he places his board upon 
the convex surface of an advancing 

12 



wave, then, with the poise of a rope- 
dancer, he places his weight prop- 
erly upon the plank and is shot for- 
ward with precipitate rapidity. 

Between Honolulu and Manila 
lies the imaginary line where the 
days of the week are supposed to 
begin and end. It has long been a 
custom among sailors to hold the 
"Revels of Neptune'' on the night 
after a vessel crosses either the In- 
ternational Date Line or the Equa- 
tor, and the ship is then turned over 
to the crew. Even the petty officers 
of the ship are not free from being 
made the objects of the sport, and 
passengers of especial prominence 
have often been treated to a bath in 
a tub of cold water or had their faces 

13 



lathered with a broom as a shaving 
brush while a bar of old iron served 
the purpose of a razor. 

A naval lieutenant on the battle- 
ship which conveyed Napoleon from 
London to St. Helena, writing to 
one of the court ladies in London, 
states that Napoleon offered the 
sailors four hundred dollars in gold 
and actually gave them eighty-five 
dollars to escape being ducked in a 
tub of cold water and shaved with 
a rough iron hoop when they crossed 
the equator.* 

We reached the line on Thursday 
night and awoke a few hours later 
on Saturday morning, having lost a 
day in revelry. 

*Century Magazine for September, 1889. 

H 



CHAPTER II. 

One would imagine the water of 
Manila Bay to be as tranquil as a 
lake should conclusions be drawn 
from its almost landlocked position. 
On the contrary, it is noted among 
sailors the world over for the rough- 
ness of its waters ; and a breakwater 
behind which ships can lie in quiet 
and take on or discharge their car- 
goes is essential to the proper devel- 
opment of the city's shipping. But, 
so far as we were concerned, this 
was a possible joy of the future. 
So, one by one we descended the 

15 



narrow stairway at the side of the 
ship, and then leaped at opportune 
moments to the decks of the danc- 
ing steam launches below. How it 
ever came to pass that each of us, 
ladies and all, in succession went 
through with this mid-air acrobatic 
performance without serious acci- 
dent is a matter of profound won- 
der; but we did, and the launches 
when loaded danced away over the 
bay and entered the mouth of the 
Pasig River. At the wharf we were 
informally introduced to a crowd of 
curious natives. The men wore 
hat, shirt, and pants, and some of 
them wore shoes. The women 
wore a sort of low-necked body 
with great wide sleeves and a skirt 

16 



not cut to fit the body, but of the 
same size at both bottom and top, 
the upper end not being belted or 
tied, but just drawn tightly around 
the waist and the surplus part knot- 
ted and tucked with the thumb 
under the part already wrapped 
around the body. The long, black, 
glossy hair of the young women 
hung loosely down their backs, in 
many cases reaching below the 
hips — heads of hair that almost any 
lady would be proud to own. 
Many of the women had in their 
mouths long poorly-made cigars 
that were wrapped and tied with 
small white threads to hold them 
together while the lady owners 
chewed and pulled away w T ith vigor 
at the end opposite the fire. 

*7 



The time of our landing was in 
the midst of the rainy season, and 
our clothing each morning when 
we arose to dress was as wet as if 
it had just come from a wringer. 
Our underclothing could be drawn 
on only with difficulty and the 
excessive disagreeableness of the 
feeling added no little to the discom- 
fort of the situation. 

When the Spaniard, attracted by 
riches of these distant islands that 
he had named for his King Philip, 
built the city of Manila, he mod- 
eled it after the mediaeval towns 
of his European home. And it is 
well that he did so, for, if we give 
credence to the city's history, its 
early life was not one of undis- 

18 



turbed quiet. Not to mention the 
sea-rovers of those early times who 
paid their piratical respects to the 
town, legend has it that this old 
wall has saved the city on two sepa- 
rate occasions from bands of Moros 
sweeping northward from the south- 
ern islands. So Manila consists of 
two parts, the city "intra muros" 
and the new city which has sprung 
up around it. 

It was on the morning following 
our landing that I first stood upon 
the old stone bridge that for one 
hundred and fifty years has borne 
the traffic between the old city and 
the new. The strokes of eight 
o'clock were pealing forth from the 
tower . of a neighboring ecclesia 

19 



when I purposely took this station 
that I might see the current of 
Manila's life when flowing at its 
height. 

At short intervals along the entire 
length of the bridge stood in its 
center a line of well-shaped Ameri- 
can policemen in neat Khaki uni- 
forms and russet leather leggins. 
Thousands of pedestrians were 
pouring across the bridge in a cease- 
less stream. Between the two lines 
of pedestrians moved in opposite 
directions two lines of vehicles and 
carts. It was indeed a cosmopolitan 
mixture of people. There were 
English bankers, French jewelers, 
German chemists, Spanish mer- 
chants, foreign consuls, officers and 

20 



privates of the American army, sea- 
men from foreign warships lying 
in the bay, Chinese of all classes and 
conditions from silk-clad bankers to 
almost naked coolies trotting along 
with burdens swung over their 
shoulders. There were Japanese, 
and East India merchants from Bom- 
bay and Calcutta, and, finally, all 
classes and conditions of Filipinos 
apparently representing all of the 
seventeen separate branches of the 
race, — each individual in this won- 
derful stream following the chan- 
nel of his own necessities. 

In the river beneath were steam 
launches towing all kinds of small 
crafts. Along the bank of the 
stream below the bridge were inter- 



21 



island steamers packed so closely 
along the shore that one could 
almost have stepped from one to 
another. Into every nook and cor- 
ner between the steamers were 
crowded small odd looking boats 
loaded with native produce over 
which the owners kept up an inces- 
sant chatter. 

All of us remained in Manila for 
about two weeks awaiting assign- 
ment to our stations. One may well 
imagine our consternation on awak- 
ing one morning about the end of 
the second week to find the follow- 
ing notice posted throughout all our 
quarters : 

"All teachers not assigned to the 
city of Manila or to Uoilo should 
supply themselves with the follow- 
ing articles: 

22 



a. One bed, or folding cot, 

b. One oil stove, 

c. One lamp, 

d. Enough supplies of all kinds 
sufficient for six months, 

e. Pots, pans, kettles, etc. 

It is needless to say that positions 
in Manila and Iloilo were now at a 
premium. 

Was it possible that teachers were 
to be sent to places where even the 
necessaries of life could not be 
obtained ! Was it possible that 
many would be sent to places so 
remote that for six months no fresh 
supplies could be gotten! A mass 
meeting was held at once, and a 
committee was appointed to send a 
cablegram to the Associated Press 

23 



petitioning aid from the American 
people at large. Realizing what 
consternation would be created 
throughout the United States by 
such a message, two of the teachers 
leaped into a carriage at the close of 
the meeting and a few moments 
later were closeted with the chief 
executive of the department. As 
a result the committee was persuad- 
ed not to send the cablegram to the 
Associated Press until by courtesy 
it had been sent to the President. 
Of course, this diplomatic move 
tided affairs over and the teachers 
who had flatly refused to budge 
from Manila now agreed to go on 
to their stations, being assured that 
whatever action was best would be 
taken. 

2+ 



The day had come when we must 
separate. We were to enter an 
untried and an unknown field. It 
was fitting that we have a final joy- 
ous meeting, so the best orchestra 
in the archipelago was engaged and 
we "chased the hours with flying 
feet" until dawn so that whatever 
might come to us in that unknown 
future upon which we were enter- 
ing each would hold in pleasant 
memory our last evening together. 



*5 



CHAPTER III. 
A DRAMA IN ACTUAL LIFE. 

Almost every one heeded the 
warning to go to his station fore- 
armed with at least necessaries of 
life, but, as it had never fallen to 
the lot of the writer to cook, he re- 
fused to learn at that late day, so he 
took no pot, no pan, no kettle, put- 
ting his future into the hands of an 
uncertain fate and relying upon the 
unknown hospitality of the Filipino. 

Bacalod, the capital of the prov- 
ince of Occidental Negros, was our 
destination. The second morning 

26 



after leaving Manila, we awoke with 
the "Kilpatrick" lying at anchor in 
a shallow bay. We were several 
miles from the shore and nothing in 
sight indicated that we had reached 
a place of any importance. Late 
the night before we had been awak- 
ened by the loud, sharp ringing of 
the ship's bells, accompanied by the 
reversal of the engines and a general 
disturbance awaking the crew. So 
our first impressions on coming on 
deck were that we had run aground. 
But the captain assured us that 
everything was ship-shape and that 
this was the nearest point of ap- 
proach to Capiz, a town of consid- 
erable importance on the island of 
Panay, where a body of troops was 

27 



to embark for home. Not even the 
grass hut of a native was in sight. 
Search as we would, not a sign was 
seen of a stream flowing into the 
sea, indicating the probable presence 
of a town. There was not a sign 
of life of any kind save one lone 
column of thin, blue smoke that 
arose from the side of a mountain 
miles away. One would have 
thought that we were explorers of 
three hundred years ago lying off 
the shore of some unknown land. 

After breakfast the steam launch, 
together with all the boats, was 
lowered, and several of us who had 
determined to miss no opportunity 
to gather information about the 
islands took our places in the launch 

28 



by the side of the ship's mate, and 
steamed away across the water with 
a long line of boats strung out in 
the rear. We headed away toward 
a group of cocoanut trees, and about 
an hour later stepped ashore on a 
pile of decayed coral rocks that ex- 
tended some twenty or thirty feet 
out into the water, thus forming the 
only landing place of a town of sev- 
eral thousands' of people and of con- 
siderable commercial importance. A 
few moments after we had landed, 
an army wagon drawn by a mag- 
nificent pair of mules came up out 
of a tropical jungle along a narrow 
road. We clambered into the 
wagon and were soon lost in the 
depths of foliage from which we had 
just seen the vehicle emerge. 

2 9 



Long waving bamboos with their 
plumy leafage hung over the road 
from each side, meeting and over- 
lapping in the center until they 
formed an archway so dense that 
the tropical sun now high in the 
heavens penetrated it only at inter- 
vals. At times the wagon sank up 
to the hubs in the soft earth, and 
the muscles of the mules stood out 
like whip-cords under the skin as 
they drew us forward. 

At a sharp turn in the road we 
came upon the first division of 
troops that was to embark for home. 
The look of joy upon their sun- 
browned faces was inexpressible. 
Their work was done, and with 
elastic step and smiling faces they 

30 



saluted us as they passed by. The 
reign of force was at an end ; it was 
going out with them ; the reign of 
peace had begun ; it was coming in 
with us. 

In the afternoon when we return- 
ed from the town the last of 
the troops had arrived and, as 
we drove up, the bugle was 
sounding the call to supper. 
We noticed native women ming- 
ling with the troops and, indeed, a 
native woman was in constant atten- 
tion waiting upon one of the sol- 
diers with whom we ate. Her 
clothes were clean, her hair was 
nicely combed, and her general 
appearance was neat. She seemed 
to anticipate the slightest wish of 

3i 



the soldier with whom she was. 
She brought him water to drink, 
cleaned his plate after the meal 
and saw that his knife, fork, and 
spoon were put into his haversack. 

We had now finished supper and 
the launch had returned for the last 
load of troops. The lieutenant in 
command of the company gave the 
order to "fall in"; the men shoul- 
dered their rifles and fell into line. 
"Forward, march!" called the lieu- 
tenant, and the column swept for- 
ward towards the boats. The 
women had until now restrained 
themselves, but, as their husbands 
marched away never to return, their 
feelings could no longer be restrain- 
ed. One young woman of about 

32 



eighteen, who was leaning against 
a rock by the roadside sobbing, 
when her husband passed, leaped 
up in frenzy of passionate love and 
caught the rifle from his shoulder, 
Her first impulse seemed to be to 
throw the gun away, but suddenly 
realizing the futility of such an act 
she burst into tears, shouldered the 
rifle herself and marched on by his 
side. Another woman of more 
mature age threw her arms around 
the legs of a tall stalwart man, and 
drew him bodily from the line. 

But the troops marched on and 
entered the boats. One woman who 
had been unnoticed before came 
dow r n into the shallow water and 
caught hold of our last boat as if to 

33 



prevent its leaving, while others 
stood mingling their sobs with the 
sounds of the wavelets as they broke 
on the sands. As we passed away, 
an expectant mother, standing in 
bold outline against the twilight 
sky, threw up her hands in 
an agony of despair and then 
sank upon the stones. The cur- 
tain had fallen upon a drama in 
actual life deeper in pathos than any 
other we had ever seen or ever 
expected to see. Depth of passion, 
depth of love! Who can fathom 
the human heart ? 



34 



CHAPTER IV. 
WHAT THE TEACHERS DID. 

There is a remarkable sameness 
about the towns in the Philippines. 
They all have a large open square 
about the middle of the town, 
around three sides of which are 
Chinese stores, unless one side lies 
open to the sea, and on the fourth 
is the great stone ecclesia. The 
streets run at right angles to one 
another and divide up the town into 
creditable squares. 

Everybody in the Philippines lives 
up-stairs, for the ground is so soaked 

35 



with water during the rainy season 
that it is a menace to health to live 
upon the ground floor. So even the 
poorest nippa hut is built upon stakes 
four or five feet above the ground. 

Bacalod is a typical Philippine 
town. As we landed, a broad open 
square was spread out before us. 
Two sides of the square were lined 
with two-story houses in which were 
Chinese stores below and Filipino 
homes above. On the third side 
stood the great stone church in 
whose massive tower the clock was 
striking the hour of four, while the 
fourth lay open to the sea that had 
borne us thither. 

We landed, but it was in a method 
new to us and one not usually 

3* 



employed by the traveling public. 

When our sail boat ran aground 
on the sandy bottom a hundred 
yards or more from the shore, a 
crowd of Filipino men who were on 
the beach slowly rolled up their 
pantaloons and waded out to the 
rescue, — for the money that was in 
it. The boat's crew elevated their 
trousers' legs also and slided 
down into the water. Each of us 
then straddled the neck of a Fili- 
pino standing in the water and was 
held by ankles to be steadied while 
our biped mounts proceeded to the 
shore. 

We were now on the ground and 
face to face with the situation. To 
give the reader an idea of the 

37 



actual conditions met by the first 
teachers who went to the Islands, 
the following is copied from the 
instructions given us in Manila : 

1. There shall be two sessions 
daily of all schools, and the last hour 
of the morning session shall be 
devoted solely to instructing the 
Filipino teachers. 

2. In cases where teachers are 
sent to a town in which there is no 
school-house, they are expected to 
secure the aid of the people and have 
one built. 

3. The American teacher is to 
see that all studying aloud is stop- 
ped. 

4. All supplies must be kept 
under lock and key. In towns 

3S 



where there is no case or box to lock 
the supplies in, and it is also impos- 
sible to get the town council to fur- 
nish a case, a requisition may be 
sent to Manila, and, if an appro- 
priation can be secured, one will be 
made and sent out, 

Thus it can be easily seen that we 
were indeed pioneers. In many 
places no school-house was to be 
found, and in some cases it was 
even difficult to get the town council 
to provide a case in which to keep 
the supplies. 

The work of the teachers was, in 
short ; to "make the English 
language the basis of instruc- 
tion in the public schools. " 
On our arrival at Bacalod two 

39 



schools were found in progress, 
for some soldiers had been de- 
tailed for the work here previous 
to our coming. One of these was 
for boys and the other, for girls. 
Thus the work here had been in 
a measure simplified, but complica- 
tions that had arisen at Talisay, one 
of the largest and richest towns on 
the island, demanded a change of 
teachers and the writer was assigned 
to the place as superintendent. 
Here an attempt had been made to 
start a school but it had failed 
ignominiously and a system of edu- 
cation was to be put into operation 
from the very start. 

The Filipinos are not strong advo- 
cates, of co-education, so separate 

40 



schools were to be started for the 
boys and the girls. The one for the 
boys was gotten well in hand before 
the one for the girls was attempted 
at all. 

A few days after reaching the 
tow r n and securing a home the presi- 
dent e, of the town had it publicly 
announced that the following Mon- 
day morning at eight o'clock a pub- 
lic school for boys would be opened 
in a building that had been rented 
for the purpose by the municipal 
council. About the middle of the 
afternoon of the same day a man 
beat a little drum throughout all the 
streets of the town to call the peo- 
ple out and the town clerk announc- 
ed both in Spanish and in the native 

4-* 



language that this public school 
would begin at the time and place 
mentioned above; that instruction 
would be free to all who came ; that 
the government would furnish all 
supplies ; and that instruction would 
be given in the English language. A 
native principal and assistants were 
employed and everything was ready 
to begin. 

The official report of the result 
is as follows : 

Boys' public school of Talisay, 
Negros, P. I., began November 4, 
1901. Forty-three boys present at 
eight o'clock. Forty-one of them 
knew "good morning" and "good 
afternoon" but do not know the dis- 
tinction between them. Two of 

42 



them speak simple Spanish. At 
eight forty-five, eight more, who had 
been attending an early morning pri- 
vate school, came in together. 

The books they brought were so 
varied and so different from one 
another that it seemed impossible 
to bring any reasonable degree of 
order out of such a chaos, and so, 
after struggling vainly for about a 
week with the problem, the super- 
intendent by one fell stroke removed 
everything in use and put in a uni- 
form system, and from that day on 
the English language has been the 
basis of instruction in the public 
schools of Talisay. The work was 
of necessity very slow at first, but 
by the end of a year two schools 

43 



were going nicely and a number of 
the brightest boys and girls had 
made really excellent progress. 



CHAPTER V. 

A "BAILE." 

Not long after the arrival of our 
party at Bacalod we received an 
invitation to a "baile" given in our 
honor by the inhabitants of Silay, 
a town some ten or twelve miles up 
the northern coast and one noted 
for its social life. The invitation 
was accepted with pleasure, and 
about the middle of the afternoon on 
the day appointed we were clad in 
the immaculate white of the tropics 
and steaming away up the coast on 
board a launch sent for our convey- 

45 



ance. Twilight was still lingering 
on the path of day when we anch- 
ored just off shore at the town. A 
row-boat containing the officials of 
the city came out to meet us and, in 
due season, we were ushered into a 
spacious drawing-room filled almost 
to overflowing with the elite of the 
town. The elite of towns in the Phil- 
ippines speak Spanish, and, as only 
one or two of our party could at 
that time boast of more than a for- 
mal acquaintance with the Castil- 
ian tongue, the exchange of ideas 
that evening between us and the 
Filipinos was of necessity not very 
rapid. 

The necessity of easy communica- 
tion between us was rendered some- 

46 



what less indispensable by the an- 
nouncement of supper as soon as we 
were rested from our trip. When 
we had taken our places at the table 
a young Filipino about twenty-five 
years of age arose and gave a 
lengthy toast to the recent union of 
the Philippines with the United 
States. But as we Americans were 
unable to scale the dizzy heights of 
his climaxes or sink to the depths of 
his pathos, we forewent the pleas- 
ures of his oratory and turned our 
attention to the savory odor of lamb, 
chicken, and roast pig that came 
slyly stealing up our nostrils to send 
us nerve dispatches about the gas- 
tronomic delights of our not far dis- 
tant future. 



4-7 



At last the toast was ended and 
the world-wide soup ushered in a 
long train of things good to eat, 
served in a style better fitted to the 
delights of the appetite than to the 
formalities of dinners, for, as soon 
as the pleasant task of one dish was 
completed by any one, the next was 
served him at once regardless of the 
progress made by the others at the 
table. 

The last course was duke. The 
new-comers to the Philippines will 
not be long in making the acquaint- 
ance of this dish, and at all meetings, 
both public and private, where eat- 
ables are served, it performs an 
important part. It is anything 
sweet, and it may vary all the way 

48 



from an india-rubber-like black mix- 
ture of cocoanut milk and dirty 
sugar to a really toothsome and 
respectable confection. No matter 
of what materials a dish is com- 
posed, just so long as it is sweet, it 
is dulce. 

After paying our respects to this 
last course, we arose from the table 
and entered a great rectangular 
room from the center of whose ceil- 
ing hung a large glass chandelier, a 
mass of shimmering crystals. In 
the chairs around the room were the 
wealth, the youth, and the beauty 
of the town. 

The first and also the last number 
of every Filipino dance of any for- 
mality is the "rigodon" The 

4-9 



dancers are arranged in a square, or 
quadrangle according to the number 
participating, and are then led 
through a tangled maze of figured 
that so utterly bewilders the novice 
that he sinks into his chair at the 
end of the dance wondering how it 
all came to pass. 

We Americans breathed a sigh of 
relief when the "rigodon" ended, 
and mustered fresh courage for 
social conquests in the waltz that 
was now breathing forth from the 
trembling strings. My companion 
in the first dance had been the 
young lady by whose side I 
had sat at dinner. But it 
now became necessary to search 
for another, so I prudently 
waited to see how partners were 

5o 



chosen, and made no mistake when 
a few moments later I faced one of 
the most luscious looking sehoritas 
on the opposite side of the room and 
offered her my arm. My eyes must 
have told the story that my lips 
could not utter in Spanish, for she 
smiled upon me sweetly, arose, and 
put her hand upon my shoulder. 
My arm encircled her waist and I 
began to waltz. Unfortunately my 
companion did not follow, but 
began to hop up and down 
in a manner most distressing. 
Supposing the attack to be 
only temporary, I paused and, 
much to my relief, she soon showed 
signs of recovery ; and in the course 
of time she came to a standstill look- 

5i 



ing up into my face in an inquiring 
sort of way, apparently wondering 
why St. Vitus had not paid his 
respects to mt also. A second 
attempt to follow the music met with 
results similar to the first, and dur- 
ing the third attempt, which seemed 
to be trembling on the verge of a 
failure, St. Vitus let go my com- 
panion and seized me with such 
vigor that she, who was small even 
for a Filipino, was gathered up 
bodily and taken around the room 
at such a pace that her toes touched 
the floor only at far distant inter- 
vals. 

At this point my devotion to the 
shrine of Terpsichore ceased from 
force of circumstances and I seated 

52 



myself in one of the most comfort- 
able chairs in sight that I might 
carry out a previously formed plan 
to study the Filipino somewhat crit- 
ically as he appears in society. 

The first thing that impressed me 
as the dancers passed up and down 
the room was the flash of diamonds. 
Nearly every woman in the room 
had on a brooch that flashed the 
colors of the rainbow at every turn. 
Almost all of them wore one or more 
rings that showed up brilliantly 
under the chandelier. Many of the 
men too, especially the young men, 
wore gems that appeared to be 
exquisite. A closer inspection 
showed that some of the gems 
had flaws and others were of 

53 



a poor color, but no one would have 
denied that, taken as a whole, it was 
a really beautiful display. 

The dress of the ladies was richly 
colored. Many of their skirts were 
of silk covered with hand embroid- 
ered flowers, and their filmy pina 
waists and broad collar pieces were 
rich with needle-work. They all 
wore a kind of heelless velvet slipper, 
very common as a dress shoe in the 
Philippines, or high-heeled patent 
leather shoes with neatly fitting 
black stockings. 

The men were dressed in white 
coats and white pantaloons or black 
coats and white pantaloons. White 
shirts and collars, together with all 
sorts and styles of cravats and low- 

54 



cut patent leather shoes with highly 
colored socks completed their dress. 
It was easy to see that the Fili- 
pinos really had a good deal of 
money ; that they liked to dress was 
apparent; and that they believed in 
a table loaded with good things was 
a fact to which all of us were 
enthusiastic witnesses. 



55 



CHAPTER VI. 

A SKETCH OF LIFE IN THE 
PHILIPPINES. 

House-keeping in the Philippines 
presents some interesting phases. 
Our club of American officials de- 
cided to run a mess, so we employed 
a cook and a house boy, then each 
of us provided himself with a per- 
sonal servant, making a total of 
six servants for four men — it takes 
about this proportion of servants to 
live in any sort of comfort in the 
Philippines — and launched our- 
selves boldly upon the sea of domes- 

56 



tic economy. But there were shoals 
ahead of us, for the question of reg- 
ulating servants i? one of no small 
importance in the Philippines, and 
one of its most disadvantageous fea- 
tures is the long chain of depend- 
ents that usually attends it. 

We gave the cooks so much a day 
with which to buy supplies in the 
local market, for our own table, 
making him render a daily list of 
expenditures, and a fixed amount 
besides to purchase rice and fish for 
himself and the other servants. Of 
course, if they w r ished to vary their 
diet and get chicken and fresh pork, 
which could be had at far distant in- 
tervals, it was wholly a matter of 
their option, but the allowance was 

57 



made on the basis of so much rice 
and fish a day for each. This 
allowance was about fifteen cents a 
day in Spanish coin per servant. 

Thus far all w r a.s well. We had 
agreed to give the cook eight dollars 
a month in Spanish money, think- 
ing that good wages would procure 
good service, but the visions of afflu- 
ence that floated before him on such 
floods of wealth were so alluring 
that they drew him from the kitchen 
to the cooler veranda. In less than 

a week he had employed an assist- 
ant at four dollars a month; in less 
than another week that assistant 
had employed him an assistant at 
two dollars a month ; in less than 
another week that assistant to the 

58 



assistant had employed him an 
assistant at the princely salary of 
fifty cents a month ; and from fear 
that the chain of dependents would 
end only by our having the whole 
Filipino race attached to our culi- 
nary force, w r e broke up house-keep- 
ing and went boarding again, choos- 
ing that as the less of the two evils. 
Our house furnishings were 
almost wholly Philippine. The table 
ware and the food on the table came 
from the ends of the earth. The 
knives and forks were made in Ger- 
many, the plates were manufactured 
in England, the glass ware and table 
cloth, in the United States. The 
oatmeal and flour came from the 
United States also. The butter 

59 



came from Australia, the rice from 
China, the salt from Russia, and 
the other eatables from sources 
about as various as their separate 
names. Switzerland furnished the 
condensed milk and Illinois the 
canned cream. Nearly all of the 
canned fruit bore labels from Spain. 
Thus it can easily be seen that life 
in the Philippines, if lived according 
to American ideals, is dependent 
upon a highly developed and highly 
complex commerce. However, the 
difficulties of transportation and the 
restriction of large stocks of mer- 
chandise to Manila and some half 
a dozen other towns, make so great 
a difference between country life 
and city life that a short comparison 

60 



of the two will not be out of place, 
and life in Manila may well be taken 
as being fairly typical of the latter. 

Life in Manila is pleasant, but ex- 
pensive. It is pleasant from the 
fact that it is not only the capital but 
also metropolis of the archipelago. 
Thus the combination of wealth and 
high official position has given to 
Manila a society of the highest and 
most refined type. The process of 
beautifying and improving the city 
which is constantly going on bids 
fair to give us at no distant day a 
city of wh'ch we may well be proud. 

But let him who intends living 
well in Manila on a small income 
bid farewell at once to so idylic a 
dream, for it costs much to live well 

61 



there. In the city of Manila one 
can get almost anything he wishes, 
but it must be paid for at the price 
it commands. Especially in the 
case of eatables, this price is by no 
means small, because to the first 
cost of articles must in most cases 
be added the expense of distant 
shipment from American, European, 
or Australian ports, and not infre- 
quently the cost of long refrigera- 
tion must also be taken into consid- 
eration. But, expensive though it 
is, it is very pleasant to live there 
and those who have once enjoyed it 
often wish again to quaff the cup of 
its delights. 

In strong contrast to this pleas- 
ant life is the life of the quiet little 

62 



hamlet away in the distant islands. 
Indeed, the Filipino from the dis- 
tant town, who by some good for- 
tune has been to Manila, or, by a 
coup de main, has studied in one of 
the Manila colleges, is looked up to 
in a true hero-worshiping attitude 
by all who either know him or hear 
of his fame. Life in such a place is 
one long state of harmless inactivity. 
Not a wave of trouble from the 
great outer world ever disturbs its 
peaceful repose. One lounges for- 
ever in an air of indolent ease and 
extreme aversion to anything ap- 
proaching what might be called a 
respectable effort. 

One arises in the morning about 
the time the sun's first rays silver the 

63 



top leaves of the cocoanut trees and 
then stirs around until nine or ten 
o'clock, when it is found expedient 
to avoid a further exposure to the 
sun. From then until about five 
o'clock in the afternoon it is best to 
take things as they come, even 
though one of those things be a Fili- 
pino dinner. But then you may 
have your vehiclo attached to a 
young bull with a ring in his nose 
and go for a drive. If it is the dry 
season you will probably enjoy the 
drive unless you object to the fre- 
quent clouds of dust swept along 
by the evening wind. If it is in 
the rainy season your pleasure will 
depend to a considerable extent 
upon how wet you get ; but, whether 

64. 



the season be wet or dry, your pleas- 
ure will be regulated largely by the 
state of harmony existing between 
the driver and the bull. 

In these quiet secluded nooks suc- 
cessive generations of Filipinos are 
born, reared, grow old and die in 
an even chain of events broken only 
by the occasional erection of a 
new grass house on the identical 
spot where its predecessors have 
stood for ages. The son lives in 
the house of his father, cultivates 
the same few square feet of soil 
planted in edible roots, climbs the 
same cocoanut trees, follows the 
same winding path down to the 
stream, pounds rice in the same mor- 
tar and with the same stick that his 

65 



ancestors have used from time 
unremembered, and, in case of ill- 
ness, curls up on a" grass mat in a 
corner of the room until he dies or 
by some good fortune recovers. 
Beyond this narrow horizon he 
never looks. So narrow and con- 
tracted is the life that the languages 
of two towns a few miles apart are 
so different that one would scarcely 
recognize them as belonging to the 
same race of people. 

Such are the two extremes of life 
in our new far Eastern provinces: 
the one is active, progressive, and 
cosmopolitan ; the other, inactive, 
decadent, and narrow ; but, whether 
one enjoys the first or endures the 
second, there comes to him after 

66 



leaving a longing to lounge again in 
tropic airs and listen to the lullaby 
of the winds among the palms. 



6 7 



CHAPTER VII. 
THE FILIPINO AT HOME. 

As one enters a Filipino sitting- 
room for the first time, there is one 
feature in the arrangement of th^ 
furniture that impresses itself upon 
him at once, and it may be stated 
without fear of serious contradiction 
that this same pecixl\ar feature in 
its arrangement will continue to face 
him, as he enters different homes, 
about as certainly as he crosses the 
threshold. 

The arrangement referred to is 
that of one large mirror, one settee, 

68 



and some ten or a dozen chairs that 
appear to have had a certain orderly 
affection for one another. The mir- 
ror is hung upon one of the large 
interior parts of the house about 
four feet above the floor. The 
wooden houses in the Philippines 
are built by setting large posts 
upright into the ground, ex- 
tending into the air from twenty 
to thirty feet. Cross timbers are 
fastened to these upright posts about 
eight or ten feet above the grouni 
and then not sawed off even with the 
posts, but allowed to extend beyond 
them each way. The framework of 
the house is built upon these 
extending cross timbers, a style of 
building by which these large up- 

6 9 



right posts are left standing out on 
the inside of the room from one to 
tree feet from the walls. It is on 
that one of these posts most nearly 
opposite the door that the mirror 
always finds its place. Immediately 
beneath the mirror is the settee ; and 
the chairs are arranged in two par- 
allel lines facing one another and at 
right angles with the ends of the set- 
tee. However odd this arrange- 
ment may appear to one when he 
first enters a Filipino drawing- 
room, there are two things to be 
said in its favor. Jn the first place, 
it places you face to face with the 
person with whom you are convers- 
ing so that you can watch him, — a 
matter of no small moment in the 

7o 



Philippines. In the next place, it 
enables you to give one of the young 
ladies a sheep's-eye in the mirror 
while the others present are left 
where Moses was in our much 
abused conundrum. 

The size of the residence and the 
quality of its furnishings depends 
upon the wealth of the owner. But 
there is so vast a difference between 
the mode of life of the highest class 
and the tao } or lowest class, that it 
is well to speak of them separately, 
and the great middle class of Fili- 
pinos can easily be imagined to 
occupy the intervening ground. 

The rich Filipino's house is usu- 
ally of wood built upon a wall of 
stone or brick from ten to fifteen 

7i 



feet high. The floors are kept 
highly polished in his hallway, 
dressing-room, and bed-rooms. 
There are, of course, no fire-places 
in any of the rooms, but on some 
occasions something is needed to 
dry the rain-soaked atmosphere, for 
even in the dry season it has been 
seen to rain for five successive days 
and nights without the cessation of 
a moment. 

A long chain of dependents is 
attached to the household of the rich 
Filipino. The master has his special 
body servant to be present at all 
times to do his master's bidding, in 
short, to be the visible mechanism 
of his master's volition. So, too, 
the lady of the house has her servant 

7* 



woman to do the slightest bidding 
of her ladyship. Then there is the 
cook who is almost invariably a 
man, a house boy or two, and the 
coachman. These functionaries, with 
their assistants and assistants to 
the assistants, together with a ser- 
vant or two for the exclusive ser- 
vice of the children, complete the 
economic household. 

Such a family has an abundance 
of rice and wheat bread, also of 
chicken and fish with occasional 
fresh beef. They have also a good 
deal of dnlce. They regularly serve 
wine and frequently serve beer on 
their tables. 

In strong contrast with this mode 
of life is that of the tao. His diet 

73 



consists almost wholly of rice and 
small uncleaned fish boiled together. 
As a rule knife, fork, plate, and 
spoon find no place in his house- 
hold. The rice and fish are boiled 
in a pot and then allowed to cool 
in the same vessel or poured out to 
cool in a large earthen or wooden 
bowl. Then Mr. Tao together with 
Mrs. Tao and all the young Taos 
squat on their heels around the mix- 
ture and satisfy that intangible thing 
called the appetite. They do not 
use chop sticks as the Chinese do, 
but the rice and fish are caught in. 
a hollow formed by the first three 
fingers of the right hand. The 
thumb is then placed behind the 
mass. It is raised up and poised 

74- 



before the mouth, with a skill com- 
ing from the evolution of ages, when 
a contraction of the muscles of the 
thumb throws the mass into the 
mouth with a skill that is marvelous 
to any but a Filipino. To judge 
from the most reliable information, 
the poorest class do not have an 
abundance of food, although it 
would seem that such a condition 
of things would be well-nigh impos- 
sible. However, in a census of one 
hundred school children there were 
found six boys and four girls who 
declared that they had never had 
enough to eat, and the native teacher 
stated that this was probably true. 
The wide gulf between the tao 
and the rich man is filled by the 
great middle class of Filipinos. 

75 



CHAPTER VIII. 
VISIT TO A LEPER COLONY. 

Not far from our town was a 
leper colony and the first Saturday 
that could be spared was set aside 
for a trip to the place. It happened 
that none of the other Americans 
were at leisure on this particular 
morning, but, rather then delay the 
trip or miss it altogether, the writer, 
armed with a revolver, started out 
alone. 

The road had been described so 
accurately by one who was supposed 
to know it that it was deemed well- 

?6 



nigh impossible to miss the way. 
The main highway was followed to 
the point where the by-path sup- 
posed to lead to the settlement 
turned off through some bamboo 
thickets and a low tropical wood. 
This path led straight away towards 
the sea-coast where the houses of 
the colony were said to stand in a 
cocoanut grove by the beach. 

Upon arriving at the settlement, a 
very inhospitable reception was 
received from a mangy cur that 
growled and showed a very unin- 
viting set of sharp, white teeth 
behind his snarling lips. The 
growling of the dog had attracted 
the attention of an old man who, 
with age-bent back, was pounding 

77 



rice in a mortar about fifty yards 
away. He turned slowly around and, 
upon seeing an intruder into the 
primitive quiet of the place, gave 
a sharp, far-reaching call. The 
sound had scarcely rung through 
the grove when from about a dozen 
of the little grass houses dotted here 
and there fifteen or twenty men 
armed with bolos came out and 
gathered around the old man. A 
sense of my danger flashed upon me. 
Three miles from town and alone 
in a tropical jungle, I could be 
almost instantly overcome by this 
band of bolo-men, and the only 
report that would ever reach my 
people would be that I had "disap- 
peared/' Of course, attack was by no 

78 



means certain, but the potentiality 
of the situation was thrilling. A 
drawn revolver and the gleaming of 
its shining barrel had the effect of 
stopping the men, who seemed to 
be hesitating as to a course of 
action, until a somewhat dignified 
retreat was made to an open space 
in the rear from where a less digni- 
fied and a more hasty retreat began 
which did not stop short of Bacalod. 
Enough had been seen, how- 
ever, even in this short visit, to give 
convincing proof that the settlement 
visited was no colony of lepers ; 
so, that afternoon two servant boys 
being taken as guides and inter- 
preters, another attempt was made 
to reach the goal desired. 

79 



This attempt was successful, and, 
after about two hours of walking, 
a little cluster of grass huts snugly 
hidden by the sea-coast came into 
view. As we approached, one would 
have thought it a gala-day. Some 
few children, apparently from six to 
thirteen years of age, almost wholly 
nude, were romping and playing in 
the open space around which the 
huts stood, and no one would ever 
have thought that any cloud so hor- 
rible as leprosy could hover over a 
pldce apparently so happy. 

By the side of the path as we 
passed was a man and his wife set- 
ting out potato plants. His hands 
were so puffed and his fingers so 
short that he could scarcely use 

So 



them, but he was working along as 
best he could. His wife's feet were 
so swollen and tw T isted that she 
walked only with the greatest diffi- 
culty. We passed them by and 
entered the open space above refer- 
red to. 

The children now saw us, and 
those of them who could darted 
away like frightened rabbits, each 
to his own burrow. An old man 
who was sitting in the warm after- 
noon sun on the little bamboo plat- 
form before his hut was aroused 
from his lethargic repose by the 
scampering away of the children. 
He arose, trembling upon his totter- 
ing limbs, all drawn and twisted, 
and hobbled away into his hut. 

81 



The children soon recovered from 
their fright and began to reappear 
at the doors of the houses, from 
which now also came the men and 
women of the settlement. In a few 
moments we were surrounded by a 
circle of human beings at once so 
repulsive and so pitiable that its 
graphic vividness can never be accu- 
rately portrayed. 

The old man referred to above, 
having put on a pair of snow T -white 
pantaloons, appeared now at the 
doorway of his hut, followed a few 
moments later by his wife who had 
evidently clothed herself in the best 
raiment she had. At a call from the 
old man, all the men, women, and 
children in the settlement came out 

82 



of their huts and stood in a line 
before us. The old man was spokes- 
man and in his native visayan 
tongue made a heart-rending appeal 
for aid which we were powerless to 
give. Attention was called to a 
leper woman, apparently about 
twenty-five years of age, whose face 
had been attacked by the disease and 
whose appearance was truly pa- 
thetic. Upon her hip was a child 
about a year and a half old and, 
strange to say, the child showed as 
yet no signs whatever of the disease. 
What an indissoluble enigma is 
life! Here in a little cluster of 
grass huts in a secluded nook of a 
secluded island of an all but seclud- 
ed archipelago was gathered to- 

S3 



gether a little community of wretch- 
ed natives, driven by their loath- 
someness from association with 
others even of the same half-savage 
race. Yet here, men and women 
loved and were married, by mutual 
trust if not by law, and children 
were born of the union to live for- 
ever under the unspeakable horror 
that overshadowed the unfortunate 
parents. Love, hatred, sorrow, and 
joy — every passion that enters into 
the complex structure of the human 
heart even here, in this scene of sad- 
ness and despair, was playing appar- 
ently as freely as where misfortune 
and disease had never crossed the 
portals of life. 

84. 



CHAPTER IX. 
A "HIKE." 

We were lounging lazily in our 
hammocks at Jimamaylan one even- 
ing in April. Supper was just 
ended, and the soldiers in the post 
were collected in groups here and 
there spinning yarns to pass away 
the time, when a Filipino clad only 
in a loin cloth came down the street 
at a steadily swinging run and stop- 
ped in front of the sentry. He 
brought the announcement that a 
band of ladrones had just burned a 
sugar mill and were advancing to 

*5 



sack a barrio about fifteen miles 
away. 

The invitation of the commanding 
officer to go on a "hike" was eagerly 
accepted, and, in ten minutes after 
the message was given, the troops 
were on the march followed by two 
adventurous pedagogues. 

Darkness was just closing in as 
we left the town, but a resplendent 
tropic moon soon made the night 
almost as brilliant as the day. The 
trail we followed led over rough 
and rocky country. Sometimes for 
a distance of a mile or more we 
passed over barren wastes of vol- 
canic slag poured out in anger by 
some peak whose convulsions have 
long since ceased. Again we would 

86 



descend into a tropical jungle from 
the dense foliage of which the 
ladrones could have leaped at any 
moment, had they known of our 
coming, and annihilated our little 
band. We forded rapid streams 
with the water at our breasts, and 
halted only once in that rapid march 
of fifteen miles. 

About a quarter of a mile from 
the town we met a man who was 
standing guard against a surprise 
by the ladrones. Nothing could 
well have been much more gro- 
tesque and nothing could much bet- 
ter illustrate the absolutely prim- 
itive condition of the Filipinos in 
the interior of the islands than the 
appearance of this guard. A pair 

87 



of knee pants, a conical grass hat, 
and a hemp shirt formed his entire 
apparel. A long flat wooden shield, 
a bolo, and a long bamboo spear 
with a sharp, flat, iron point, com- 
pleted his equipment for battle. 

Here stood the first and the twen- 
tieth centuries side by side. The 
Filipino who had advanced only a 
stage beyond the condition of prim- 
itive man with his knife, spear, and 
wooden shield, stood side by side 
with the American soldier, a repre- 
sentative of modern life with his 
magazine rifle, his canteen, his knap- 
sack, — with every article of his 
clothing made to give him the high- 
est possible efficiency as the unit of 
a military organization. 

88 



A few yards farther on we met 
another guard equipped similarly to 
the first. Upon reaching the town, 
news had just been received that a 
detachment of troops from another 
post had intercepted the ladrones 
and fought a skirmish with them. 
The ladrones had escaped and we 
set out in pursuit of them on a chase 
wilder than a Quixotic dream. We 
wound our way into the mountains 
behind the town, inquiring at every 
grass hut we passed whether the 
band of ladrones had passed that 
way, but only once was even a trace 
of them found. Then it was learned 
that at a certain place they had 
separated into groups of three or 
four and gone glimmering through 

8 9 



the dream of things that were. 
This place was in a secluded 
nook of the mountains where 
in years gone by some adventurous 
Spaniard had erected a primitive 
water mill to grind his sugar-cane. 
We had now marched about twenty 
miles and the feet of the pedagogues 
were a mass of blisters. They had 
reached the point where that form of 
military maneuvering called "hik- 
ing" ceased to possess any alluring 
charms. So a native was persuaded 
to come out of his lone mountain 
hut and hitch up his carabao and 
cart. He was then made to get on 
the carabao's back, while the afore- 
said pedagogues lay down on the 
sugar-cane pulp that had been put 

90 



into the body of the cart, and 
the driver was instructed to 
start for the post we had left 
hours before, and not to stop 
until he got there. Being uncer- 
tain but that some of the ladrones 
would learn of our having left the 
body of troops and would try the 
metal of our steel, we at first agreed 
that neither of us should go to sleep, 
but it was later decided that prob- 
ably the driver had no greater desire 
to cross theStyx than his passengers 
had and that in case of danger he 
would awaken us, so both took a 
revolver in each hand, stretched out 
supinely and went to sleep. 

Such a sleep! The rough jolt- 
ing of the cart over an almost impas- 

9* 



sable road was never enough to 
break the spell of slumber. When 
we awoke the blazing tropic sun was 
past the midday mark of morning, 
shining full into our unprotected 
and well-nigh blistered faces. 

A pack of dogs were heralding 
our approach to a little village at the 
foot of the mountains where ponies 
were procured to take us back to the 
post. * 



92 



KAMMONOt »IUNTtt*« •WNtg, ftCAWflKt. VA. 



U I 



', \- 






